Friday, July 10, 2009

Everyone involved with the Flight 93 Memorial knows that the Crescent of Embrace points to Mecca

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In 2007, Flight 93 Advisory Commission member Tim Baird told Alec Rawls (the author of these blogburst posts) that everyone at the meetings he attended is fully aware that the giant crescent, originally named the Crescent of Embrace, really does point almost exactly at Mecca. Professor Baird says they all just assume (himself included) that the Mecca orientation must be an innocent coincidence.

Pretty crazy, when they have also been told the meaning of a crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca. Every mosque is built around a Mecca-direction indicator called a mihrab, and the classic mihrab is crescent shaped. Geometrically, the Crescent of Embrace is the world’s largest mihrab.

However honestly Project Partners believe that the Mecca orientation of the crescent must be a coincidence, this is not what they tell the public. When reporters asked Memorial Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley about the Mecca orientation, she denied it:
"The only thing that orients the memorial is the crash site," she said.
Thinking that the Mecca orientation of the crescent must be a coincidence in no way justifies lying to the public about this explosive information. If Baird’s account is accurate—that the dozens of Memorial Project Partners all know that the giant crescent actually does point to Mecca—then the Memorial Project has a lot of explaining to do. Now an overlooked article from 2007 corroborates Professor Baird’s information.


Dr. Glenn Kashurba

It turns out that a Pennsylvania psychiatrist who has been intimately involved with the memorialization of Flight 93 (writing two books on the subject) argued to a reporter before the July 2007 Memorial Project meeting that the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent (which he took as a given) should be seen as coincidental:
“When you calculate angles to Mecca - I'm going to be in Washington, D.C., this week, and I'm sure if I calculate angles of the monuments, at least one points to Mecca,” Kashurba said. “I don't know if it will be the White House or the Lincoln Memorial, but at least one will. People looking for a way to support their way of looking at things will look at this in this way for ever and ever.”
If Dr. Kashurba was getting his information from the Memorial Project’s public statements, he would have denied that the crescent points to Mecca. Here is what Memorial Project Partner Patrick White told the press 9 days before the Kashurba story:
Rawls, of Palo Alto, Calif., contends that the centerpiece of the design points toward Mecca.

Rawls’ claims are untrue and “preposterous,” according to Patrick White, Families of Flight 93 vice president. “We went through in detail all his original claims and came away with nothing.”
Kashurba knew better, as did Patrick White himself. The week after his public denial, a local woman asked White how he could be okay with the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent. This time White did not deny the Mecca orientation, but argued that it cannot be seen as honoring Islam because the inexactness of the Mecca orientation would be "disrespectful" to Islam.


Mecca orientation takes literally 2 minutes to verify, starting from source documents

It is not surprising that these Memorial Project insiders would know that the giant crescent does in fact point almost exactly at Mecca (1.8° north of Mecca to be precise, ± 0.1°). After all, they had by the summer of 2007 been examining Rawls’ report, and answering questions from the press about it, for over a year, and the near Mecca orientation of the Crescent of Embrace is trivially easy to verify.

Just use any of the online Islamic prayer-direction calculators to print out the direction to Mecca from Somerset PA. Place this graphic over the Crescent site-plan on your computer screen, and you will see that the Mecca-direction line (which Muslims call “qibla”) almost exactly bisects the crescent:



The green circle in this image is from the qibla calculator at Islam.com (down at the moment, but you can use the one at Qibla.com, or QiblaLocator.com). A person standing between the tips of the giant crescent and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

Patrick White knows this and deceives the press and the public about it. Dr. Kashurba knows it and stands by as White and others deceive the press and the public about it. These deceptions have been blatant.


Everything points to Mecca?

The Project even went to far as to dig up an academic fraud from Texas, willing to deny that there is any such thing as the direction to Mecca:
Daniel Griffith, a geospatial information sciences professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, said anything can point toward Mecca, because the earth is round.
Was the reporter embarrassed to ask Muslims if they can really face any direction to face Mecca? Hard to blame her. Just to ask such a stupid question is to answer it, but the obviousness of the fraud is no excuse for letting it stand.

According to Professor Baird, every Memorial Project member who saw these denials knew that they were fraudulent, yet not one of them has tried to tell the public about the Project’s dishonest cover-up. When the truth does get out to the broader public, Project members are going to have a lot to answer for, which is presumably why they are keeping their mouths shut now. They have done a very bad thing and they don’t want it exposed.


What proves Islamic intent is the architect’s elaborate repetition of the Mecca orientation

No one ever claimed that the almost exact Mecca orientation of the Crescent of Embrace proves Islamic intent. Architect Paul Murdoch proves intent in a different way: by elaborate repetition of his Mecca orientations. His first confirmation of intent is to include an exact Mecca orientation.

In Murdoch’s explanation, the flight path breaks the circle, turning it into the giant crescent. To find this thematically defined crescent, remove those parts of the full Crescent of Embrace that extend out past the point where the flight path breaks the circle. The resulting true or thematic crescent points EXACTLY at Mecca:



At the upper tip of the crescent, the flight path comes down from the NNE and symbolically breaks the circle. What symbolically remains standing is the true or thematic Crescent of Embrace, pointing exactly at Mecca.

Murdoch’s next confirmation of intent is to exactly repeat this entire multi-Mecca oriented geometry in the vast array of crescents of trees that surround the Tower of Voices part of the memorial. Setting aside the chance that an architect could in the first place design a memorial to Flight 93 out of nothing but crescents just by innocent coincidence (which must be close to zero), the odds that these crescents would by random chance manifest Murdoch’s repeated Mecca orientations are 1 in 131 billion:




The only change was to include an explicitly broken off part of the circle

The original Crescent of Embrace design included the symbolically broken off parts at the upper crescent tip. When the bare naked Islamic-crescent shape caused a public uproar, the Memorial Project added another broken off part of the circle, floating out in front of the mouth of the original crescent.

They call it a broken circle now, but the unbroken part of the circle, the symbolic result of 9/11, is still a giant Islamic shaped crescent, still pointing EXACTLY at Mecca. That makes it a mihrab, the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built. The planned memorial is actually a terrorist memorial mosque.


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More Obama Broken Promises: Presidential Signing Statements

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

One thing I know is true (one of Obama's favorite transitions) is...the campaign trail is a lying, cheating road to the Oval Office for four more years of lying and cheating. Congress has rebuked President Obama's Presidential Signings.

Thanks to Stop the ACLU.

This was then...



Obama on Presidential Signing

“What George Bush has been trying to do as part of his effort to accumulate more power in the presidency is he’s been saying ‘well I can basically change what Congress passed by attaching a letter saying I don’t agree with this part or I don’t agree with that part,” Obama said last year during a campaign stop. “I’m gonna’ choose to interpret it this way or that way.’ That’s not part of his power. But this is part of the whole theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he’s going along. I disagree with that. I taught the constitution for 10 years. I believe in the constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States.
“We’re not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end-run around Congress.”

This is now:

The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration to abide by its constraints.

House members approved an amendment by a 429-2 vote to have the Obama administration pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require a Treasury Department report on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) activities. The amendment to a 2010 funding bill for the State Department and foreign operations was proposed by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), but it received broad bipartisan support.

The conditions on World Bank and IMF funding were part of the $106 billion war supplemental bill that was passed last month. Obama, in a statement made as he signed the bill, said that he would ignore the conditions. They would “interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions,” Obama said in the signing statement.

Hat tip: Hot Air

End Stop the ACLU

The Hill went on to report:
Senior Democrats and Republicans railed against the notion that the president could ignore a law they had passed and he had signed.

"We do this not just on behalf of this institution, but on behalf of this democracy," said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). "There's kind of a unilateralism, an undemocratic, unreachable way about these signing statements."

Frank and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said that one way they could get presidents to stop issuing signing statements casting aside laws would be to refuse to fund their priorities. The amendment passed Thursday seeks to nullify Obama's signing statement by withholding funds from any agreement involving the Treasury Department that doesn't follow the conditions set out in the supplemental bill.

"The signal we send to the Treasury is very clear: Ignore statute at your peril," Kirk said.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign: Celebrating the Freedom of Speech


Hat tip to Crusader Rabbit

Imagine living in a country where the currency is so worthless that a trillion dollars doesn't even buy a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, or even a piece of bubble gum.

Imagine living in that country and the press being silenced. Forced to follow the Party line or face punishment.

Imagine a courageous Newspaper publisher with limited funds and the advertising agency that takes on such a dictator.

This is the life for millions of citizens in Zimbabwe. Hyper-Inflation, loss of civil rights, and a dictator more concerned with his own self than his people.

The Zimbabwean Titanium Trillion Dollar Campaign



View at YouTube

The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign celebrates the freedom of speech – and after winning the Grand Prix in the 2009 Disruption Awards the jury at the 2009 Cannes Lions honored the South African campaign with an unseen amount of Cannes Lions: so far three Gold, one Silver and one Grand Prix.

The campaign was designed to raise awareness regarding the plight of The Zimbabwean newspaper and consisted of various creative elements, including a billboard, all made up entirely of Zimbabwean Dollar bank notes. The newspaper, the brainchild of journalists driven into exile, is committed to providing independent and fair comment on Zimbabwe to Zimbabweans, and has had a ‘luxury’ import duty of over 55% added to it by the Mugabe government, thus making it unaffordable to the average Zimbabwean citizen.

Read the full story here.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is a tyrant. Ruling the nation of Zimbabwe with an Iron Fist, squandering its resources on frivolities, his wife believes that the national treasury is her personal spending account and her shopping trips to Paris, London, Rome, and New York are infamous.

The Mugabes and their cronies live in splendor while their nation suffers. Drought, Cholera, Hunger stalk the nation.

How much longer does the people of Zimbabwe have to suffer at the hands of this tyrant before the International Community cries enough? How much longer do we have to wait before President Barack Obama says something? Or will Mugabe become just another dictator in a line of dictators around the world that Obama will embrace?

The people of Zimbabwe need our voices to be raised, for theirs have been silenced by their tyrant.

If you wish to read the truth from Zimbabwe, you have the opportunity and ability to read The Zimbabwean. It is on-line and free to you. Unlike the millions living in Zimbabwe, you are fortunate to have access to the internet.


Two Arabs Discuss the Worth of the Arab Civilization

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

This is a conversation you are likely never to hear again. Two Arab men discuss the worth of the Arab civilization.

Anwar Malek is the second man to speak. He is the Algerian author of "A Flood of Corruption and the Advance of bin Laden in Algeria. The book has been confiscated and disappeared from reality. His first mistake: using an Arab publisher. No...maybe his first mistake was not getting to safety before making the remarks you will hear in this video.

For just a taste of what's to come: The first interviewer says 73% of our viewers believe that Arabs constitute a great power and have the power to be influential, and so on. Malek responds that those viewers are afflicted with "fantasies and obsolete bravado." False and empty bravado. The Arabs invented or discovered the zero - but what did they do with it? Today the Arabs constitute nothing but thousands of zeros to the left....there is nothing to suggest that the Arabs can be relied upon to produce anything. It just gets better from there.


Thanks to Always On Watch who has some good commentary and additional sources.



Iran Portests Again! 10th Anniversary of Tehran University Murders

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

Today on the anniversary of the 1999 Iranian protests of the murders of Iranian students at Tehran University, renewed protests of the June 12 election are revived on the streets of Iran. After warnings from the government that any uprising prompted by the 1999 anniversary would be met with "crushing response," Iranians took to the street anyway.

Tehran University
(photo from December 2007 protest)

After 11 days of agitated calm, thousands of protesters massed in central Tehran at about 5 p.m. on Thursday evening, Tehran time. Police used batons and tear gas against the protesters. While the protest started peacefully:
...the effort to halt the protest quickly turned violent. A middle-age woman ran through the crowd, her coat covered with blood stains. Trash fires burned, cloaking the streets in black smoke, as protesters lobbed rocks at security forces. Two men held a huge floral arrangement of yellow and purple flowers on green leaves aloft through the smoke in commemoration of those killed in the last month and 1999, a witness said.

“Tell the world what is happening here,” one 26-year old engineering student demonstrator said. “This is our revolution. We will not give up.”
Asked what he wanted, he said: “We want democracy.”
For the most part, all journalism and communication has been shut down:
Cellphone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day, apparently to prevent communication between protesters, while the government closed universities and declared an official holiday Tuesday and Wednesday, ostensibly because Tehran has been shrouded in a heavy dust and pollution cloud, The A.P. said.
Atlas Shrugs has insight about today's uprising and its connections to the 1999 uprising. See how the return of a former prisoner is making a difference in Iran today. Read it here.

What are we to think of the past 11 days of agitated calm? Via Hot Air, Michael Ladeen reports on July 8th, a day before today's protests:
Meanwhile, horribly maimed bodies have been showing up all over the country. Some of the gouging of the bodies seems to have been done to remove all evidence of bullet holes, but whatever the “explanation,” the bloody savagery is well documented.

If you want some detail about the horrors inside Iranian hospitals, have a look at Le Figaro’s account.

Over the objections of medical staff, bodies from the demonstrations were quickly moved elsewhere. “We believe they were transferred to the Baqiatollah military hospital or some other undisclosed location”, notes the doctor. Then, under the pretext of “organ donation”, all traces of bullets were removed from the bodies. “The parents were force to accept this if they wanted to retrieve the body for burial”.

Ladeen talks about the days of quiet:
And yet, the protest goes on. For the past three days, a general strike has been in effect, with significant results. Indeed, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei preemptively admitted defeat when government offices and factories were shut down in the name of a religious observance. But the strikers only expanded the range of their actions, notably by shutting down electrical grids in several cities, including parts of Tehran. Great swathes of the nation were plunged into darkness. This sort of thing is likely to continue, whatever happens on the 9th.
And on the free world and supporting tyrants:
...the so-called Western world, which apparently cannot even bring itself to punish the regime for violating all rules of civilized behavior. Obama, following his familiar pattern of allying himself with the tyrants rather than the democrats, doesn’t want new sanctions. I suppose he’s still hoping that the tyranny will prevail, and then he can make a wonderful deal with Khamenei pere. Or fils, as the case may be.
Read Ladeen's post for sharp insight and see how London's confiscation of $1 billion+ of Iranian money has affected the core of the murderous regime.

The following video is not the best quality but it certainly gives the spirit of the protest.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

It Was Bound To Happen

Hat tip to Simply Jews

Men soon to become obsolete!

British researchers have developed human sperm from stem cells.

It is no joke. It is a breakthrough in reproductive science.
Scientists in Newcastle claim to have created human sperm in the laboratory in what they say is a world first.

The researchers believe the work could eventually help men with fertility problems to father a child.

But other experts say they are not convinced that fully developed sperm have been created.

Writing in the journal Stem Cells and Development, the Newcastle team say it will be at least five years before the technique is perfected.

They began with stem cell lines derived from human embryos donated following IVF treatment.

The stem cells had been removed when the embryo was a few days old and were stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.

The stem cells were brought to body temperature and put in a chemical mixture to encourage them to grow. They were "tagged" with a genetic marker which enabled the scientists to identify and separate so-called "germline" stem cells from which eggs and sperm are developed.

The male, XY stem cells underwent the crucial process of "meiosis" - halving the number of chromosomes. The process over creating and developing the sperm took four to six weeks.

Read the full story here.
There you are Gentlemen. You have 5 years to make your case before the extreme feminists decide that you are no longer wanted or needed. And they will you know.

So give us 3 good reasons why women should keep you around.

Just 3.

It's A Simple Answer After All

Hat tip to Holger Awakens

Ronald Wilson Reagan
spoke many times on the dangers of Appeasement and giving into the demands of foreign dictators for the promise of peace.

And although in the following video President Reagan is speaking about the former Soviet Union, his words still ring true for this day and the dictators of today.

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Alexander Hamilton

Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second--surrender.



It's A Simple Answer After All




View at YouTube


Take heed America, there is an Appeaser in the White House.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A Father's Cry To The World.



On July 6, 2009 Noam Shalit addressed the members of the United Nation fact-finding commission on Gaza headed by Judge Richard Goldstone. This commission was formed to lay all blame on Israel, not even considering that Hamas should bear blame too.

Noam Shalit is the father of Israeli POW Sgt. Gilad Shalit who has been illegally held in Gaz for 3 years. His words are painful and telling:

From UN Watch
My name is Noam Schalit and I am the father of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.

Honorable members of the Mission - I thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today. I thank you, also, for allowing me to make my testimony public. I know that this Mission is determined to give the victims of the recent conflict in Gaza an opportunity to make their voice heard. So - with your kind permission - I would like to use this distinguished forum - the United Nations - first to address you and then to address the people of Gaza and, in particular, the people holding my son Gilad.

Honorable Members of the Mission, a few weeks ago you were in Gaza. You met the Hamas hierarchy. According to the Ma’an news agency - Mr. Ismail Haniyya welcomed your mission deploring what he viewed as Israel’s grave violations of international law. The same news agency reported that the Mission thanked Mr. Haniyya for his cooperation in facilitating its work. Sirs and Madam, if this cooperation is indeed genuine then the same HAMAS hierarchy should honor your eventual findings - whatever they may be.

And I have no doubt that after you read my written submissions, you will determine that my son’s violent abduction and his continuing detention subject to extortion is, equally, a violation of international law. After you hear the cassette recording of my son’s voice - released on the first anniversary of his capture - you will be shocked by the callous cynicism of his captors and the grief that his words have caused me and my family. These are words that he was forced to read. You will also find, without a doubt, that the refusal to allow him access to the Red Cross, if not a war crime is, at least, a gross act of inhumanity and an aggravating circumstance.

Members of the Mission - The same Geneva Convention of 1949 which this Mission will use to judge the legality of the Israeli attack on Gaza forbids the holding to ransom of an individual - whether he be soldier or otherwise. The same Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by which the Palestinian Authority seeks to charge the Israeli hierarchy condemns the HAMAS leadership no less for the crime of taking hostages - soldiers or otherwise. The same court in The Hague where the Palestinian Authority pursues Mr. Olmert may equally investigate Mr. Masha’al who - with his Jordanian nationality - falls squarely within the jurisdiction of this institution.

But what is the purpose of this honorable Mission? Is it really to lay the basis for a future criminal prosecution? Or is it, perhaps, to effect reconciliation? Know that the minds and hearts of the Israeli people are with my son on a daily basis. His release - which it is within your power to promote - will bring about such reconciliation.

And now, with you permission, I would like to address the Palestinian victims of Operation Cast Lead.

People of Gaza, I do not come before this Mission as a representative of the Israeli State. I come neither to condemn nor to justify the recent Israeli operations in Gaza. I am not a politician nor do I care for politics. I am a civilian and the father of three.

I last saw my son Gilad on Wednesday 21 June 2006 when he returned to the military service which his country obliged him to perform by law. A few days later, his patrol was sabotaged by armed Palestinians, two of his fellow soldiers were killed before his very eyes and he was abducted. He was nineteen years old at the time. A shy boy with a nervous smile and a studious disposition. Like many his age, all that occupied him were his studies and sport. To all those who know him, he is gentle and sensitive to the suffering of others - a trait he has shown from an early age. At the age of 11, his teacher asked him to write a fable. His drawings and narrative have now been published. I am giving the Mission a copy of this book. You can read it if you wish. The story of a shark and a fish who became friends against all the odds. Need I say more? Suffice to say that the will for peace and security can overcome fear and distrust.

People of Gaza - Do not overlook the circumstances of my son’s service nor of his capture. He was not attacking your territory. He was not even in your territory. He was operating within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel - protecting the integrity of what was supposed to be a border of peace after a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Your leaders say Gilad is a prisoner of war. I say he is an abductee. The difference is in the interpretation of the law. But even if your leaders hold my son as a prisoner of war - why will they not allow him the privileges which attach to such a status ? Gilad has no contact with the outside world. Your leaders refuse him access to the International Committee of the Red Cross - the same Red Cross which regularly visits your people held captive in Israeli prisons. The same Red Cross which protests the violations of their rights to the Israeli Government.

People of Gaza, your leaders are fighting to return your sons and daughters from captivity. This is an understandable desire. You may agree with such a policy. Many of you, however, will realize that the fate of an entire prison population cannot depend on the ransom of one young man.

Your leaders have committed a crime with respect to my son. They hold him to ransom and, by the same token, they hold all of you to ransom. For three years now, you have been held hostage to the inflexible demands of your leaders and their unwillingness to compromise. They issue demands which, I fear, the Israeli Government will never meet. My son’s fate is the means through which your leaders distract your attention from the destruction they have brought upon you. Is this humane? Are these the acts of an honorable regime?

People of Gaza - Do not ignore the root cause of our mutual suffering. You know that the injustice done to my son was the trigger for war. You also know that the release of my son is the key to peace and the lifting of the Israeli commercial blockade. A small gesture and a little effort on both sides can relieve the misery of many.

President Sarkozy of France recently told Prime Minister Netanyahu that your leaders would not release Gilad until Israel freed prisoners. I am not a party to talks on prisoner release. I am not consulted on numbers and I have no say in the conduct of negotiations. Like many of you, all that concerns me is that the one I love returns home. Do those of you who are waiting for the return of those close to you care for the politics? Do you care for the posturing of your leaders? Or do you - like me - wish that this war and what caused it would never have happened?

But if a prisoner exchange need be the course we are forced to adopt, let reason and moderation overcome excessive demands. Let not a stalemate in the negotiations prevail over the will of the people. Let not stubbornness triumph over compassion.

People of Gaza - like many of you, we are suffering the consequences of the decisions and failures of others. Like many of you, my family and I have been caught up in a web of violence. Like many of you, I pay a heavy price on a daily basis. I know that you are short of food. Some of your loved ones have been killed - women and children, young and innocent. I understand your distress and sympathize with your grief. I have visited your wounded from Beit Hanoun and, have witnessed, at first hand, the unnecessary suffering and the unspeakable atrocity of war. But even so, I do not compare suffering. As a parent speaking to a multitude of parents - I ask you to understand my family’s anguish. As the days go by, we begin to despair. We despair of the day when we will see our son again. I know neither where he is held nor how he fares. Whether he is injured or whether he is even alive.

And finally to the people holding my son: I urge you to release my son. You have the power to act with grace. Do it for the respectability that you wish the international community to accord you. Do it because you see yourselves as statesmen acting with humane intent. Do it for the sake of the respect you say you show this Mission. Do it not for gain but do it, I beg you, because it is the just and right thing to do. But most important of all, do it for the peace and welfare of your own people.
The Geneva Conventions of War has the following on the treatment of prisoners:

Article 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.

The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.

The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.
Hamas is in clear violation of this article.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has the following:
Article 8 War crimes

1. The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes.

2. For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:

(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:

(vi) Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;

(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;

(viii) Taking of hostages.
While International Law is clear, I fear that Noam Shalit's words have fallen on deaf ears. The world doesn't want to hear how Hamas uses civilians to hide behind (in total violation of International Law). Or how they and their Muslim allies have lied to the UN and the press for the last 20 years, crying victim when they are the victimizer. Goldstone's commission has already come to their conclusion, regardless of what the Law affirms. That conclusion will condemn Israel and praise Hamas.

In a sane world, the world would have condemned Hamas, imposed sanctions and raised a fuss until Gilad was returned and all attacks on Israel stopped. but this is not a sane world. No one cares about a lone Israeli POW except Israel. The world stays silent, a father worries about his son, and Hamas is praised by all for their actions.


Pentagon Refuses Military FlyOver: Christianity the Problem

by Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook

An organization in Idaho filed for permits for a military flyover, as they have done for 42 years. For 42 years the request was approved. In The Time of Obama, however, the Pentagon denied the God and Country Family Festival their ceremonial flyover.

Military FlyOver

Nampa, Idaho’s 43rd Annual Treasure Valley God and Country Festival applied for the FAA permit, which was approved. The next step was the Pentagon application, which was denied. The denial came because the event was “Christian in nature,” said the Pentagon, according to Reverend Patrick Mahoney on FOX News this morning, with Gretchen Carlson.

Spokespersons for the God and Country Family Festival say while their organization is definitely “Christian in nature,” but the flyover is a tribute “to the military and the freedoms that they stand for.

…we’re honoring the military when we do that flyover, and that’s why we do it. I think they made a bad decision.

Pam Baldwin, the executive director of The Interfaith Alliance of Idaho weighed in:

Everything is not about whether folks are Jews or Christians or Muslims,” she said. “If people are saying that, they’re probably looking for media attention or looking to disparage other faiths.”Baldwin questioned whether a flyover of the event would have been a prudent use of public resources, especially in light of the deep recession.

You know America, we must deal with this issue. The Constitution guarantees all Americans the freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Non-believers and believers in other faiths are not free to take Christianity from us, or free to remove or deny the Christian principals that were integral to the founding of the United States and all of the history that brings us to today.

The mountain of evidence cannot be shoved under the rug, or worse yet, be overturned (amended) within our founding documents unless we allow it. This is not the time and place to reiterate such evidence, but perhaps we should define just what being a Christian nation means, since President Obama has denied our Christianity as he has traveled around the world. I’ll quote a Supreme Court justice from the best essay I have found on America’s “Christian nature.” The quote from WallBuilders is just a snippet of the documentation. I urge you to read the entire article, bookmark it for future reference and quote from it often:

Contemporary post-modern critics (including President Obama) who assert that America is not a Christian nation always refrain from offering any definition of what the term “Christian nation” means. So what is an accurate definition of that term as demonstrated by the American experience?

Contrary to what critics imply, a Christian nation is not one in which all citizens are Christians, or the laws require everyone to adhere to Christian theology, or all leaders are Christians, or any other such superficial measurement. As Supreme Court Justice David Brewer (1837-1910) explained:

[I]n what sense can [America] be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or that the people are in any manner compelled to support it. On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or name Christians. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in public service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially. In fact, the government as a legal organization is independent of all religions. Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this republic as a Christian nation – in fact, as the leading Christian nation of the world. 8

So, if being a Christian nation is not based on any of the above criterion, then what makes America a Christian nation? According to Justice Brewer, America was “of all the nations in the world . . . most justly called a Christian nation” because Christianity “has so largely shaped and molded it.” 9

Back to the Treasure Valley God and Country Family Festival, no doubt we will begin hearing that the Pentagon doesn’t have the funds for the flyovers. Since Pentagon flyovers are always intended to salute our military and patriotism, and are usually accompanied by the National Anthem, I suggest we pull all the pork necessary from earmarks out of the budget and the stimulus to fund legitimate flyovers. Or cancel the Obama’s Wednesday night cocktail parties.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

A Shinning Beacon Of Freedom To The World!


On this date in 1776 a new nation was formed. A child of compromise and much promise. It was not even certain that this new nation would even gain its independence from Great Britain. But with luck, the help of the French and the Grace of G-d, it survived and thrived.

This nation has seen good times and bad. War and peace. Economic prosperity and depressions. It nearly tore itself apart not once but a few times. Yet it has managed to remain true to its ideals.

Like all nations, this one has made mistakes. The horror of slavery was permitted at its founding. The treatment of its minorities was not always according to the ideals its founders had in mind. One half of this nation was denied the right to vote for over 100 years. But even these mistakes were dealt with and are still being dealt with.

For all of its flaws, this nation has become:

A Shinning Beacon Of Freedom To The World!

That is the true nature of America. Not our politics, sports stars, military might, cities or monuments. But the Freedoms that we have and enjoy.

No other nation on Earth guarantees its people this level of freedom. That is the reason we are the Leader of the Free World, and not Europe.

On this day that we celebrate the formation of this great union, take a moment with your family and friends to remember those Founding Fathers and the ideals of Liberty and Freedom they bestowed upon this land. And thank G-d that we have had, and still have the strength to keep the dream of freedom alive.

Star Spangled Banner



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Happy Indepdence Day!

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Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Typical Moonbat


When I published Moonbats Ahoy I knew that I would get comments such as the following:
The IDF knew full well that "The Spirit of Humanity" (chartered by an organization expressly committed to non-violence, populated by an international retinue of peace activists including a Nobel laureate, and previously inspected and cleared by Cypriot authorities) bore absolutely no threat to the people of Israel. This is just simple piracy by the IDF, every bit as illegal and immoral as Israel's larger suffocating blockade of the Gazan people. And as always, we Americans bear great responsibility for it, as it's being executed with our weapons and our tax dollars.

The Free Gaza Movement (the aforementioned non-violent organization dedicated to peaceful resistance of Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza) has done a great service, in bringing this issue back to the public eye, where it belongs. And as for where they're getting these funds? Well, they'll be getting some from me and my family. Starting today.

Patrick Meighan
Culver City, CA
Like all good Moonbats, Mr. Meighan has swallowed the Kool-Aid.

For the record:

The Spirit of Humanity Leaky Rust Bucket filed a sailing plan with the authorities on Cyprus that stated their next port of call was Port Said. To do this without actually planning to go to that port is in violation of International Maritime Law.

Said Leaky Rust Bucket was seized off of Ashdod, Israel, inside Israeli waters. Again in violation of International Maritime Law.

Israel has the right not to supply any thing to Gaza. The border was closed (and will remain so) due to the daily rocket attacks on Israel (ever hear of a city called Sderot Mr. Meighan?) and until Sgt Gilad Shalit is returned alive to Israel (kidnapping in illegal in all nations). Israel supplies daily 60 tons of food, fuel, medicine. Where do you think the terrorist in Gaza are getting their electricity and water from? Why don't you scream about Egypt? They have closed their border with Gaza too. Ooops. Egypt is Muslim thus allowed to do so.

Do you know what is inside those Kassam rockets that the peace loving people of Gaza fire at Israel civilians Mr. Meighan? Concrete, steel re-bars, nails and glass. The better to maim and kill.

The same materials which you claim are being used for the non-violent Free Gaza. So much for that claim lie.

Like all good Moonbats Mr. Meighan has been taught that so-called Palestinians are victims (even when they are killing Israelis), that everything they do is acceptable. He is also taught that all Jews Israelis are evil and must be destroyed.

Mr. Meighan can throw away his money on Free Gaza. He can believe that all Israelis should be killed (Free Gaza is an arm of Hamas) and he can even write what he wants to about them.

But here at Monkey in the Middle the lies of Hamas' cover group Free Gaza will not be allowed a place. Here we speak the truth, not propaganda and lies.

July 1st and 2nd, 1776: Toil, Blood and Treasure Needed

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

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Our Constitution was made for only a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. -John Adams

Thank you to Andrew Colvin at The Constitution of the United States for the John Adams quote above.

*****

The following is an excerpt from David McCullough's book, John Adams. It takes the reader through the events of the two tense days when the weight of liberty weighed heavily on our Nation's founders. Much was at stake. Every vote counted. The rains pelted down. Caesar Rodney from the Delaware delegation was missing and his vote for the new republic was sorely needed. British warships were just off shore...

July 1st and 2nd, 1776 - John Adams



Monday, July 1, 1776, began hot and steamy in Philadelphia and before the morning was ended a full-scale storm would break....
John Adams: This morning is assigned the greatest debate of all,...A declaration, that these colonies are free and independent states,...May heaven prosper the newborn republic.
At ten o'clock, with the doors closed, John Hancock sounded the gavel. Richard Henry Lee's prior motion calling for independence was again read aloud;...Immediately, [John] Dickinson, gaunt and deathly pale, stood to be heard. With marked earnestness, he marshaled all past argument and reasoning against "premature" separation from Britain.
Dickinson: My conduct this day, I expect, will give the finishing blow to my once great...and now too diminished popularity....But thinking as I do on the subject of debate, silence would be guilt.
Then he sat down and all was silent except the rain...No one spoke, no one rose to answer him, until Adams at last "determined to speak"....Outside the wind picked up. The storm struck with thunder, lightning, and pelting rain. He spoke on steadily, making the case for independence as he had so often before. He was logical, positive, sensitive to the historic importance of the moment, and looking into the future, saw a new nation, a new time,...

To [Thomas] Jefferson, Adams was "not graceful nor elegant, nor remarkably fluent," but:
Thomas Jefferson:...[Adams] spoke with a power of thought and expression that moved us from our seats.
...when later that evening a preliminary vote was taken, four colonies unexpectedly held back, refusing to proclaim independence. Pennsylvania stood with John Dickinson and voted no. The New York delegates abstained, saying they favored the motion but lacked specific instructions. South Carolina, too,...voted no, while Delaware, with only two delegates present, was divided. The missing Delaware delegate was Caesar Rodney, one of the most ardent of the independence faction. Where he was or when he might reappear was unclear, but a rider had been sent racing off to find him.

...Edward Rutledge [moved] that a final vote be postponed until the next day, implying that for the sake of unanimity, South Carolina might change its mind, Adams and others immediately agreed. For while the nine (9) colonies supporting independence made a clear majority, it was hardly the show of solidarity that such a step ought to have.

That night, at the City Tavern and at the lodging houses of the delegates, it was extremely tense. The crux of the matter was the Pennsylvania delegation, for in the preliminary vote three of the seven Pennsylvania delegates had gone against John Dickinson and declared in the affirmative, and it was of utmost interest that one of the three, along with Franklin and John Morton, was James Wilson, who, though a friend and ally of Dickinson, had switched sides to vote for independence. The question now was how many of the rest who were in league with Dickinson would on the morrow continue to "vote point blank against the known and declared sense of their constituents."

To compound the tension that night, word reached Philadelphia of the sighting off New York of a hundred British [war] ships, the first arrivals of a fleet that would number over four hundred.

Tuesday, July 2...it appears that just as the doors to Congress were about to be closed at the usual hour of nine 'clock, Caesar Rodney, mud-spattered, "booted and spurred," made his dramatic entrance....Almost unimaginable, he had ridden eighty miles through the night, changing horses several times, to be there in time to cast his vote.

Yet more important even than the arrival of Rodney were two empty chairs among the Pennsylvania delegation. Refusing to vote for independence but understanding the need for Congress to speak with one voice, John Dickinson and Robert Morris has voluntarily absented themselves from the proceedings, thus swinging Pennsylvania behind independence by a vote of three to two. What private agreements had been made the night before, if any, who or how many had come to the State House that morning knowing what was afoot, no one recorded.

Outside, more rain threatened, and at about ten came another cloudburst....New York continued to abstain, but South Carolina, as hinted...joined the majority to make the decision unanimous in the sense that no colony stood opposed....

So, it was done, the break was made...on July 2 , 1776, in Philadelphia, the American colonies declared independence. If not all thirteen clocks had struck as one, twelve had, and with the other silent, the effect was the same.
John Adams...in the privacy of two long letters to Abigail: It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.
Lest she [Abigail] judge him overly "transported,' he said he was well aware of the:
...toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration.
[Wednesday, July 3, 1776]...But there could be no pause. There was too much still to be done. Congress had to review and approve the language of the drafted declaration before it could be made official. Deliberation of a different kind commenced at once, continuing through the next morning,...when mercifully the temperature had dropped ten degrees, broken by the storm of the previous day.

For Thomas Jefferson it became a painful ordeal, as change after change was called for and approximately a quarter of what he had written was cut entirely. Seated beside Benjamin Franklin, the young Virginian looked on in silence. He is not known to have uttered a word in protest, or in defense of what he had written. Later he would describe the opposition to his draft as being like "the ceaseless action of gravity weighing upon us night and day."

[Thursday, July 4] In later years the excessive summer heat of Philadelphia would frequently figure in accounts of Thursday, July 4, 1776. In fact, the day, like the one before, was pleasantly cool and comfortable. In Congress, discussion of the Declaration appears to have continued through the morning until about eleven o'clock, when debate was closed and the vote taken. Again, as on July 2, twelve colonies voted in the affirmative, while New York abstained. Again, John Dickinson was absent. It all went very smoothly.

Congress ordered that the document be authenticated and printed. But it would be another month before the engrossed copy was signed by the delegates. For now, only the President, John Hancock, and the Secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson, fixed their signatures.

With passage of the declaration of Independence thus completed, and having thereby renounced allegiance to the King and proclaimed the birth of a new United States of America, the Congress proceeded directly to other business. Indeed, to all appearances, nothing happened in Congress on July 4, 1776.

[Friday, July 5, 1776] ...printer John Dunlap had broadside editions available and the delegates were busy sending copies to friends.

[Saturday, July 6, 1776]...the Pennsylvania Evening Post carried the full text on its first page.

[Monday, July 8, 1776] The great day of celebration came Monday,...at noon in the State House Yard, when the declaration was read aloud before an exuberant crow. With drums pounding, five battalions paraded through the city and "on the common, gave us the feu de joie [thirteen cannon blasts], notwithstanding the scarcity of powder,"...Bells rang through the day and into the night. There were bonfires at street corners. Houses were illuminated with candles in their windows. In the Supreme Court Room at the State House, as planned, a half dozen Philadelphians chosen for the honor took the King's Arms down from the wall and carried it off to be thrown on top of a huge fire and consumed in an instant, the blaze lighting the scene for blocks around.

[Friday, August 2, 1776] The actual signing of the document would not take place until Friday, August 2, after a fair copy had been elegantly engrossed on a single, giant sheet of parchment by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress. Nothing was reported of the historic event. As with everything transacted within Congress, secrecy prevailed. To judge by what was in the newspapers and the correspondence of the delegates, the signing never took place.

In later years, Jefferson would entertain guests at Monticello with descriptions of black flies that so tormented the delegates, biting through their silk hose, that they had hurried the signing along as swiftly as possible. But at the time Jefferson wrote nothing of the occasion, nor did John Adams. In old age, trying to reconstruct events of that crowded summer, both men would stubbornly and incorrectly insist that the signing took place July 4.

Apparently there was no fuss or ceremony on August 2. The delegates simply came forward in turn and fixed their signatures...Like the others, Adams and Jefferson each signed with his own delegation, Adams on the right, in a clear and firm, plain hand, Jefferson at lower center with a signature more precise and elegant, but equally legible.

The fact that a signed document now existed, as well as the names of the signatories, was kept secret for the time being, as all were acutely aware that by taking up the pen and writing their names, they had committed treason, a point of considerably greater immediacy now, with the British army so near at hand.

"The Declaration of Independence has produced a new era in this part of America," wrote Benjamin Rush, [a signer]..."The militia of Pennsylvania seem to be actuated with a spirit more than Roman. Near 2,000 citizens of Philadelphia have lately marched to New York."...

Even those in Congress who had been so ardently opposed, now, by word or deed, committed themselves to the "Glorious Revolution."

By July 3, 9,000 troops led by General William Howe had landed on Staten Island, where hundreds of Tories were on hand to welcome them. Howe himself had gone ashore on July 2, the very day that Congress had voted for independence, and in the days following, up the Narrows between Staten Island and Long Island came ever more British sails, including an armada of 130 warships and transports from England....By mid-August, 32,000 fully equipped, highly trained thoroughly professional British and German (Hessian) soldiers - more than the entire population of Philadelphia - were ashore on Staten Island, supported by ten ships-of-the-line and twenty frigates, making in all the largest, most costly British overseas deployment ever until that time.

By contrast, the American army gathered in defense of New York, digging in on Manhattan and Long Island...Nathanael Greene, wrote to tell John Adams that in reality the American force might number 9,000; and as Adams knew, they had no naval support - not a single available warship or transport. When, on July 12, with the wind and tide in their favor, the British sent two men-of-war up the Hudson River to demonstrate who had control, there was nothing to stop them. as the huge ships passed upstream, American militia stood gawking onshore, which evoked an angry general order from Washington declaring such "unsoldierly conduct" could only give the enemy a low opinion of the American army.

Early on Thursday, August 22, an exceptionally clear, bright day in New York, the British commenced their invasion of Long Island....wave after wave,...small boats...transports...15,000 English, Scottish, and Hessian troops were rowed across the Narrows from Staten Island to land without opposition on the broad shoreline near Gravesend, eight miles to the rear of the American stronghold on Brooklyn Heights.

Contrary to basic military doctrine, Washington had divided his forces between Manhattan and Long Island. Expecting a second, larger British landing on Manhattan, he remained there, while on Long Island his battalions braced themselves for the assault. But for days the British command under General William Howe made no move in force, not until August 27, when a furious battle was fought to the southwest of Brooklyn Heights....Washington was by then on the scene with reinforcements....

But the inexperienced Americans were outnumbered, outflanked, and overwhelmed in only a few hours.

Through the night, under the cover of darkness, rain, and fog, Washington's army had been ferried across the mile-wide East River, through powerful currents, in every conceivable kind of small boat, most of them manned by Massachusetts fisherman - some 9,000 to 10,000 troops...all moving with utmost silence.


Taken from David McCullough's John Adams, (hardback, selected portions of pages 125-163).
End John Adams text.

*****

John Adams is an awe-inspiring read. I didn't put it down for days and have read it over several times. The book is much more than the "signing" and the "war" that would go on and on until America prevailed.

A last thought about John Adams from the late David McCullough (page 163):
Few Americans ever achieved so much of such value and consequence to their country in so little time. Above all, with his sense of urgency and unrelenting drive, Adams made the Declaration of Independence happen when it did. Had it come later, the course of events could have gone very differently.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Moonbats Ahoy!

They are at it again! Those wild and crazy idiots moonbats from Free Gaza came up with enough cash to get their ship Spirit of Humanity Leaky Rust Bucket to sail again.

Where do they get these funds from?

Several IDF navy boats intercepted, boarded and took control of a boat of pro-Arab activists trying to break Israeli sovereignty over coastal waters Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured, and an IDF spokesman told Israel National News that no shots were fired.

It was the first time the IDF has boarded one of the boats since the pro-Arab “Free Gaza” movement began sending ships to Gaza last August. The previous sailing, earlier this year, ended up with a collision with a navy boat that forced the activists away from Gaza. The activists have accused the navy of purposely ramming their vessel.


Free Gaza Ship The Leaky Bucket

If the IDF had rammed any of their boats, they would have sunk. In typical moonbat fashion, they cry wolf when there is only a sheep dog present.

Among the 17 passengers on Tuesday's vessel, not including the captain and three-man crew, are former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and three journalists, including two from the Arabic-language Al Jazeera network. Other passengers are from the United States, Denmark. Ireland, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Britain. One Israeli, Lubna Masarfwa, also is on board, according to the Free Gaze group that organized the voyage.

As the navy surrounded the activists’ boat, McKinney said by phone from the vessel, "I am extremely angry. We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs.”


Cynthia McKinney


Cynthia McKinney knows a lot about dogs. She has been called a female dog for years. The Israelis can keep her, the US doesn't want her back.
The IDF would not confirm or deny a charge by an Irish activist that the navy threatened to open fire if the boat did not turn back to Cyprus, where it departed on Monday. The navy boarded the boat after it passed from international waters into the area that Israel controls and which the activists claim belongs to the Palestinian Authority.

The IDF made contact and told the boat it would not be allowed to approach because of security risks and a blockade which Israel has imposed to prevent terrorists and weapons from arriving, according to the IDF. “Despite warnings, they crossed into coastal waters and as a result of this, a naval force intercepted it and boarded it, with the intention of directing it to Ashdod port in Israel.”

The spokesman said the crew and passengers will be turned over to the appropriate authorities, who probably will order their deportation. He added that any aid on board for Gaza residents will be delivered to Gaza. The IDF action is an apparent attempt to put a stop to the Free Gaza sailings, which started out last year with the Foreign Ministry trying to ignore the first boat and prevent a media circus. However, subsequent ships began to include politicians and Arab journalists, and the government put its foot down when the movement tried to reach Gaza during the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign earlier this year.

Free Gaza spokeswoman Greta Berlin responded, “We are not going to stop coming to Gaza. I honestly believe that Israel does not realize the tide of public opinion has changed.”

She also said that only 21 passengers were on board because other space was used for supplies to Gaza residents.

The National Union of Journalists in Britain said it will file a complaint against Israel. Former Congresswoman McKinney, who was on the boat that was in the collision, called on U.S. President Barack Obama and the international community to "intervene now to prevent this situation from escalating with potentially drastic results to the civilians on board."

Read the full story here.
This group doesn't understand why the Israelis won't allow concrete or steel rebars into Gaza. It is very simple: While most people use those materials to build homes, schools, hospitals, etc... The Idiots in Gaza use the same materials only for rockets to fire into Israel.

That is why they live without sewage. The pipes have been removed for rocket materials. Or the fact that even when they do rebuild their homes, they are no way up to modern building codes (actually most Arab buildings wouldn't be up to the codes of the 1920's.

The Free Gaza ship will be impounded. The crew and passengers deported. And already Free Gaza is trying to raise more funds for another run.

And this time the media is ignoring them.


Lionheart News: All Charges Dropped in Luton

[From Maggie] I know many of you have been following Lionheart and his travails in his hometown of Luton, England. If you are not familiar with Lionheart and his blog, the thing you need to know is that he has had his life upended for more than a year-and-a-half by authorities, because he wrote about the threat of Islam to his hometown and his home country. His freedom of speech was threatened through arrest and interrogation. Here's the latest from Lionheart, and it's a hallelujah moment:

All charges against me "dropped"
by Lionheart
July 1, 2009

I have been on police bail for 18 months on suspicion of 'stirring up racial hatred' through written material on this blog.

Lionheart

When my impending arrest first came about, I was in America and was advised by several American organisations and respected individuals that I should apply for political asylum there, but decided after speaking to my lawyer Mr SBLM (not Anthony Bennett who turned on Mr & Mrs McCann), that the best plan of action was to return to Britain and go through the motions of arrest and interrogation.

I was arrested, interrogated, then released and have spent the last 18 months backwards and forwards on police bail, awaiting the CPS to decide whether or not they were going to charge me and put me on trial for my words.

My next bail date was Friday 3rd July, but I have just received news from my solicitor that all charges against me have been dropped, so there is no case to answer over my blog.

Freedom of Speech has won, over the politically correct brigade who have tried silencing me, and members from their pet project British Islam who have wanted me prosecuted and silenced from speaking out against them and their religion. British Islam is a threat to every man, woman and child upon the British Isles, based upon 1400 years of experience and knowledge, and people like me, have a right and responsibility to talk about it openly, freely and honestly without fear of state persecution, prosecution or imprisonment.

May God bless each and every person who has supported me over the past 18 months, and beyond.

The battle for the heart and soul of Great Britain has begun!


"Deus Vult"


End Lionheart post

Friends, if you do not know about Lionheart and what is happening in parts of the U.K. with Islamic extremism [terrorism] please take some time to browse through his archives. The charges against have been dropped but the people of Luton and surrounds will be still be fighting to save their cities. Visit Lionheart and be aware.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Honduras Defending Democracy and Constitution

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

In researching the events taking place in Honduras, I see President Obama immediately cited the outster of President Manuel Zeyala as "not legal." Another "gird your loins" moment for the American President. The question is: was this a coup d'etat or a constitutional succession?


Roberto Micheletti


Why did the Supreme Court rule that ousted President Manuel Zelaya was subverting the rule of law in Honduras? Why did Congress rule the same?

Zelaya's term of office ends in 2010. He called for a "controversial referendum" to take place on June 28th. The referendum, if approved, would have made changes to the Honduran Constitution to allow Zelaya to run for office for another term, an action the Supreme Court says is not lawful.
While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.
After the Supreme Court declared the referendum not lawful, Zelaya vowed to hold a vote on the referendum anyway. Zelaya dismissed "the military chief," Romeo Vasquez, who opposed Zelaya's position on the referendum. The Supreme Court asked that Vazquez be reinstated. Zelaya refused.
So on Thursday he [Zelaya] led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
The Supreme Court voted to remove Zelaya "to defend the rule of law."
The Honduran Congress later swore in its leader, Roberto Micheletti, as the new head of state after voting to remove Mr. Zelaya for "manifest irreuglar conduct" and "putting in present danger the state of the law."
Micheletti said that the orders carried out as issued by the Supreme Court and the Congress "was not a coup d'etat, but a constitutional succession."

The new government's foreign minister, Enrique Otez Colindres said the new government looks forward to meeting with OAS officials:
...so they can realize that this is a government that respects all laws and the only thing it did was to remove a president for systematically violating the constitution.
Manuel Zelaya was elected as a conservative. He has progressively moved away from that position and cemented relationships with Cuba's Castros, Venezuela's Chavez and Bolivia's Morales. As Wall Street Journal writer, O'Grady said, it is not "about left-right politics."
It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators.
So how do the Honduran people feel about the ouster? The Latin Business Chronicle says that Honduran business support the Supreme Court and Micheletti's new government:

It is extremely popular,” says Jacqueline Foglia Sandoval, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Honduras. “I don’t know of any one who isn’t celebrating."

[The attempted referendum] followed three years of Zelaya policies that were seen as arbitrary and often hurting business, Foglia Sandoval says.

Over the last three years, our ex president had created political and social chaos,” she says. “He [was] very unpredictable and many times [imposed] arbitrary actions that …affected the business climate.
The Latin Business Chronical reports that wage hikes smacked of socialism and resulted in the loss of 150,000 jobs.
[Zeyala] in December to raise the minimum wage by 60 percent despite that unions had demanded 20 to 30 percent and employers had countered with zero to 10 percent.
Not only did he exceed the union demands, but also imposed the new laws as companies already had their 2009 budgets ready, Foglia Sandoval points out. As a results some 150,000 jobs were lost during the past six months, she says.
Another concern was his talk about implementing socialism of the 21st century, modeled on Venezuela. “People associate socialism with ration cards, with lines, with the things we do not want,” Foglia Sandoval says. “It’s a poor country, but we don’t have rationing, or lack of mobility, or have to ask permission for moving.” Further issues raised by the business community is the lack of security, which Sandoval said Zelaya completely ignored. Drug trafficking is growing and people fear for their personal safety. Foreign investment has diminished, and Zelaya's treatment of foreign oil companies was considered "hostile."
In January 2007, Zelaya announced plans to temporarily assume control of oil terminals and restrict imports of oil to one company in an effort to reduce fuel prices. However, after the US Embassy in Honduras warned that the takeover would have serious consequences, the government reversed its position on the terminals.
Fogliz Sandoval said relations with the U.S. were "worsening."

The people of Honduras are standing to protect their Constitution. This is a hallelujah moment for Democracy.

President Obama has said that the ouster of Manuel Zelaya was "not legal." Obama has said the U.S. will "stand on the side of democracy." He has said nothing about the legality of Zelaya subverting the Honduran Constitution. That is the issue. If a democratic election is held, and then the one democratically elected attempts to take over the government illegally - then why are we not talking about that?


Rudi Stettner at Rant Rave looked at the differences in Obama's handling of the Iranian election and the Honduran succession and summed it up this way:
One thing that was established in the Honduran coup. When there is a "progressive" consensus, Obama will quickly find his voice. Since Islamic radicals are the fascists that liberals love, a blind eye will be turned to their sins.

Monday, June 29, 2009

EPA Hushes Dissent: Inconvenient Truths

By Maggie at Maggie Thornton

Repeated lies from a Government to the people is usually the strategy of a third-world country or a dictatorship, but we find it happening in the United States every day. These are big lies, important lies, lies that affect the future of all of us...the future of our children and grandchildren and their children. Just as the media has refused to do much reporting on the Cap and Trade Bill, they also will not tell you of the lies leading up to the vote on the Waxman-Markey Bill. In this case, the EPA silenced and suppressed opposition, and blatantly lied. See a video below.

EPA


Here's the opening of an Investor's Business Daily editorial from Friday, June 26th, 2009 - the day of the House vote:
Climate Change: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill?
The Competitive Enterprise Institute released a study that they say was "suppressed" by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report says that the United Nations uses "outdated research" on climate change and "ignores the latest scientific findings." From the report:
Given the downward trend in temperatures since 1998 (which some think will continue until at least 2030), there is no particular reason to rush into decisions based on a scientific hypothesis that does not appear to explain most of the available data."
As Obama and Pelosi have shoved this legislation down our collective throats, many Americans are gullible enough to think this legislation takes us to nirvana. Many are dreaming of working among the "green" jobs that will save America. Wake up America. Those dreams you are dreaming of, will turn into nightmares.
Little evidence? Outdated U.N. research? No reason to rush? This is not what the Obama administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were telling us when they were rushing to force a Friday vote on Waxman-Markey. We were given the impression that unless we passed this cap-and-tax fiasco, polar bears would be extinct by the Fourth of July.
Internal EPA emails show that the Agency knows and understands that their data is wrong, and those emails also show that they were intentionally suppressed. This is the people's EPA. Wake up America. Do you get your news from David Letterman?
The report was the product of Alan Carlin, senior operations research analyst at the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE). He's been with the EPA for 38 years but now has been taken off all climate-related work. He is convinced that actual climate observations do not match climate change theories and that only the politics, not the science, has been settled.

One of the e-mails unearthed by CEI was dated March 12, from Al McGartland, office director at NCEE, forbidding Carlin from speaking to anyone outside NCEE on endangerment issues such as those in his suppressed report.
All this is particularly interesting because of the charges by Al Gore, NASA's James Hansen and others that the Bush administration and energy companies actively suppressed the truth about climate change.
Carlin was told March 17: "The administrator and the administration have decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision. . . . I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office."

In other words, the administration and Congress had their collective minds made up and didn't want to be confused with the facts. They certainly didn't want any inconvenient truths coming out of their own Environmental Protection Agency, the one that wants to regulate everything from your lawn mower to bovine emissions and which says the product of your respiration and ours, carbon dioxide, is a dangerous pollutant and not the basis for all life on earth.

Thank you to Investor's Business Daily for making this information available. I hope you will read the entire editorial. Thank you to Senator Jim Inhofe who has led the way to understanding the deception behind global warming/climate change. This video is a bit long, but it's full of useful information.

Related:
Media Ignore EPA Suppressing Skeptical Global Warming Report


California Zoning Laws Coming to Your Neighborhood, In Any State - Courtesy Cap and Trade




Senator Jim Inhofe

Iran: Liberal Thought, Liberal Democracy Ends

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the June 12th elections were "the end of liberal democracy and liberal thoughts."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In other words, the next time "Western states" meddle in Iran's affairs, the President has a plan.
President Ahmadinejad said, “From now on, we will bring you to justice at any international meeting.”
He excoriates the West and cannot understand how the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K. can talk about human rights when our own hands are "stained with the blood of innocent people," and then there's our rotten and satanic attempts to "damage Iran's Islamic system...."

Ahmadinejad had something to say about Obama's outreach to Iran - you remember that offer to "talk." After Obama's comments during the Iranian street protests, Ahmadinejad said the U.S. didn't follow "international rules and norms," and besides that, we were just downright "impolite." He advises us to "correct" our "behavior."

You can read the article here or here at Judeopundit who also has some commentary worth reading.